Contested elections, protest, and regime stability: comparing Belarus and Bolivia

Kulakevich, Tatsiana; Augsburger, Aaron

doi:10.1080/00085006.2021.1991744

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…By contrast, in Belarus the key trigger was non-economic. The COVID-19 pandemic became a catalyst for civil society activism after Lukashenka chose to disregard the coronavirus threat and labeled it a “psychosis.” While Lukashenka and his government lacked the resources to contain and mitigate the virus, Belarusian people felt a disconnect between insecurity and their expectations shaped by the years of the government’s heavy emphasis on political stability and guarantees of security (Kulakevich and Augsburger 2021). Lacking a national lockdown, Belarus became the only country in the region with open borders during the first wave of the pandemic.…”

Section: Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-Authoritarian Learning: Prospects for Democratization in Belarus Based on a Study of Polish Solidarity

Kulakevich

Kubı́k

2022

Nationalities Papers

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This article examines the anti-Lukashenka protest movement in Belarus by comparing it to the Solidarity movement in Poland. We organize our analysis around the concept of four stages identifiable in the development of social movements: emergence, coalescence, bureaucratization, and decline. We argue that protests in Belarus reached the bureaucratization stage, but their transformation into a more durable movement was slowed down by the brutal repressions unleashed by the Lukashenka regime propped up by Putin’s Russia. However, the spectacular changes in people’s conceptions of national identity built around symbols different from those associated with the officialdom may sustain emotional mobilization necessary for formation of higher levels of organizations in the oppressive context of today’s Belarus. The contours of this process are brought into sharp relief when compared with the long, cumulative trajectory of the 1956-89 anti-authoritarian Polish revolts. This opens the way for cautious prognostication.

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Section: Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%